Officials debate housing options

The University of Northern Colorado plans to tear down some student housing and build a few residence halls.

The details are vague, but they have a few ideas.

Officials want to replace old, large buildings with new, small ones. They want bigger, suite-style rooms and space for students to gather. They know they’ll have about $63 million to complete the project.

Beyond that, they’re looking for some good designs to make it happen.

A committee of administrators and members of the UNC Board of Trustees discussed on Monday the project scheduled to begin as early as next summer. Previously, the university looked at plans that had two basic options: Renovate Turner Hall and renovate or replace McCowen Hall.

The plan had charts and figures. Research supported it all. It looked great. Board of trustees Chairman Dick Monfort and trustee Jerry Morgensen both said so. They’d just like to see a few more options.

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Give the architects the land layout, tell them the basics of what you want and let’s see what they come up with, Morgensen said.

“These are the guys who do this for a living,” he said. “Let them be creative.”

Morgensen, chief executive officer for Hensel Phelps Construction Co., offered to have his estimators review plans with architects and give UNC an estimate of the cost for free.

Once the committee began to talk about alternate plans, members came up with ideas of all kinds. Buildings disappeared, open spaces became construction sites and new buildings shifted between wood and stone and concrete, depending on who was speaking.

Monfort suggested crews demolish McCowen, build three or four new residence halls along 11th Avenue and raze Turner when UNC had the money.

UNC’s $63 million in bonds, financed by student housing payments, is more than the board planned to have when the original proposal was drafted. Monfort said that changed the way the committee and trustees should approach the project.

Fourteen architects bid on the project, and UNC is expected to select one in the next three to four weeks.